Tiempo Climate Newswatch

Guidelines for releasing aid to protect forests have been agreed at the Oslo Climate and Forest Conference. "The outcome of this meeting could be the first comprehensive component for a future international agreement on climate change [since the Copenhagen climate summit]," commented World Bank chief Robert Zoellick. "This is a good day, it rebuilds trust in the international community's ability to confront climate change," said Abyd Karmali of Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

"The interim REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation)Partnership Agreement puts the world on course to delivering scaled up early action to tackle deforestation and represents a real breakthrough in making progress on keeping global temperatures below 2°C," said the United Kingdom's climate change minister Greg Barker. "The onus is now on all of us to support real action on the ground in rainforest nations to stop vast acres of forests disappearing. This means that finance must also be scaled up in the long term and that this can only be achieved in partnership with the private sector," he continued. The United States, Australia, France, Japan, Britain and Norway agreed at the Copenhagen climate summit to commit US$3.5 billion over the period 2010-12 to forest protection. That fund has now grown to US$4 billion.

Control measures have at least ten times the impact of climate factors on malaria incidence, according to a recent study conducted by the Malaria Atlas Project. Researcher Peter Gething from Oxford University described the climate link as an "unwelcome distraction" from the main issues of tackling malaria.

Computer models of disease spread were used to assess the efficacy of control measures over the past century, showing that control measures were one to two orders of magnitude greater than any climatic influence. "I'd say what we've shown is that if we can provide people with existing technologies such as drugs and bednets, we have the capacity as a global community to reduce the misery this disease causes," Gething commented.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released rules to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from stationary sources such as power plants, refineries and factories by modifying the Clean Air Act. "After extensive study, debate and hundreds of thousands of public comments, EPA has set common-sense thresholds for greenhouse gases that will spark clean technology innovation and protect small businesses and farms," Lisa Jackson, EPA administrator, said.

"The Obama administration has again reminded Washington that if Congress won't legislate, the EPA will regulate," Senator John Kerry commented. The move is being challenged. "If EPA wants changes in the Clean Air Act it should propose them to Congress, not unlawfully take on the role of Congress," said Gregory M Scott of the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association in a statement. "If EPA is allowed to get away with this, it sets a dangerous precedent for unelected officials in federal agencies to change laws approved by the elected representatives of the American people," he added.